|
 |
Walk-In-Area and COOP area Sign up now underway with GFP
|
| By: Corey Carlson |
May 13, 2009 |
|
Want to get paid for allowing hunters access to your land? If so, give Conservation Officer Corey Carlton a call.
The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks lease private ground for free public hunting access. Last year the Walk-In-Area (WIA) program allowed free public access to over 1.2 million acres of land in South Dakota! Thank you to all of the landowners currently involved in this program. It is because of you that the hunting traditions here are as popular, if not more popular, than anywhere in the country! This program is extremely popular and is a very effective way to help reduce wildlife damage to crop fields. I would like to inform any area landowners that are interested in signing up their land in the Walk-In-Area program to get in touch with me.
The sign up time is from now until June 1st. No major changes in the WIA program this year. The payment rate for the WIA is $1/acre for hunter access and an additional $5/acre for any permanent habitat (CRP, cattails, water, tree belts). A total payment of $6/acre if all of the land is considered permanent habitat.
A new option for area landowners is the COOP program. This program is set up very similarly to the WIA program. This program is very negotiable in the payment/acre. This program has an emphasis on allowing hunters to drive their trucks and decoy trailers into HARVESTED fields to unload and load their decoys to field hunt waterfowl. This program has the potential to be very popular in Marshall County because of the large number of migratory waterfowl that use or live in the area. The COOP areas will have different signs than the WIA program. To be eligible for this program 20% of the acres signed up must be permanent habitat (water, cattails, CRP, tree belts). The best part of this program is that it allows landowners to sign up more land for a higher price for harvested crop fields. The price/acre is flexible for each individual contract according to the property. If you are considering this program, make sure to give me a call because this program has so much flexibility. This program will also help any area landowner with Canada Goose problems, reduce the flock on their property.
Feel free to call me at 448-5500 for more information on any of these programs. Make sure to leave a message so I can return your call as soon as possible, because the spring is an extremely busy time for a Conservation Officer. Thank you.
|
|
©Marshall County Journal 2010
|
|
|
